Interactive Traveler: Cellular Surprises

April 2000

I Want My Foreign TV

Calling all media junkies: ForeignTV.com is now offering streaming video feed from news channels accessible only on the Web. English-language broadcasts from CCTV of China, Dublin's TV 3, and the Vatican's CTV, plus shows from Algeria, Zimbabwe, and Turkey, are now a mouse click away. Hungry for more headlines?Former CNN reporter Peter Arnett, the site's chief foreign correspondent, has exclusive interviews with notable global personalities such as former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres, Jordan's Queen Noor, and Oscar Arias, the ex-president of Costa Rica. ForeignTV.com even lets you channel-surf. Take a virtual swim in the Red Sea at the Global Village, or veg out with a music video from Brazilian singer Marisa Monte on the AllWorldMusic channel. --Dara Y. Herman

the latest in cell chic

Can the StarTAC get any cooler?The tiny phone that's a favorite among power brokers from Wall Street to Hollywood has a hot new accessory: the clipOn Organizer, which shrinks a PalmPilot's features (address book, memo pad, calendar) into a 2.3-ounce device that attaches to the StarTAC. Its hip quotient is matched only by its ease of use--just locate a phone number in the clipOn and it dials for you. While you're gabbing, unclip the organizer and update your to-do list. --H. Scott Jolley

slim downtwo new sites help reduce your e-overload

If you're starting to look like Inspector Gadget laden with pager, cell phone, laptop, and combination printer/fax machine when you go away for a weekend, here are two ways to simplify your e-life:

Leave your laptop at home and instead check e-mail from any phone with myTalk. It takes only a few minutes to register (free) at www.mytalk.com; you'll then be assigned a toll-free number that integrates up to three different e-mail addresses. When you call in, a computer will respond to your voice commands and read e-mails aloud, sprinkling its responses with friendly affirmations like "Sure" and "You're welcome." You can even respond to e-mails over the telephone, and your spoken reply will arrive as a WAV sound file in the recipient's e-mailbox.

Onebox.com offers one stop for voice mail, e-mail, and faxes. Your Onebox e-mail address, along with a new fax and phone number assigned to you, brings all your correspondence to one place, allowing you to organize and access information via the Internet or phone. Calling into Onebox will yield only voice messages and a report that you have an e-mail or fax; you'll have to find a computer to retrieve the actual text. Like myTalk, Onebox.com is also a free service--so far. Some privileges, like forwarding a fax, soon will become premium services with modest monthly fees--only $5 a month. --D.Y.H.

you've got photos

Even though your loved ones are thousands of miles away, sharing memorable moments is no farther than your computer. GatherRound.com allows users to create a free private photo album on the Web. The images can be shared by inviting people to the site (GatherRound zaps the URL to your friends in a private e-mail), or by sending picture e-mails in the form of a revolving cube, a spinning carousel, or a snappy slide show. Scan your own snaps or simply upload images from a digital camera or a photo CD. So far, only Netscape allows full access to all of GatherRound's functions, but any Internet browser can view the pictures. The site's uploading process can be slow, depending on the speed of your machine, so get out your camera, say "Cheese," and be patient. --Hillary Geronemus